Feature: Lantern Festival, what did the "Jade Rabbit" see on the moon

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 5.

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter Peng Qian Zhang Manzi

　　During the Lantern Festival, the bright moon hangs high.

As the closest celestial body to the earth, the moon is the first stop for mankind to start the "interstellar era".

From lunar probes, unmanned lunar vehicles to manned landing on the moon, human exploration of the moon has never stopped.

　　On the surface of the moon covered with large and small impact craters, two shallow ruts on the lunar soil extend to the distance - this is the image of the lunar surface recently sent back by my country's "Yutu-2" lunar rover.

Chang'e-4, which is carried by "Yutu-2", is the first human probe to achieve a soft landing on the back of the moon. "Yutu-2" is also the only lunar rover still in operation on the moon. It has been working for more than 4 years and accumulated Driving nearly 1,500 meters, more than 940.1GB of scientific data at all levels have been released.

　　Lunar rovers are exploration vehicles that can move on the surface of the moon.

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union and the United States successively sent lunar rovers to land on the moon.

The world's first unmanned lunar vehicle was the Lunokhod 1 launched by the Soviet Union. It landed in the Mare Imbrium region in November 1970 and has been working in this region for about 10 months.

The Soviet Union sent the unmanned Lunokhod 2 to the Sea of ​​Tranquility area on the moon in January 1973, and it was damaged after working for about 4 months.

The other three lunar rovers launched during this period are the manned lunar rovers carried by the American "Apollo" spacecraft 15, 16 and 17. They were used as vehicles in the early 1970s for astronauts to inspect the lunar surface. They were used during research, and are currently incapacitated.

　　Since then, only two lunar rovers have successfully landed on the moon, both from China, the "Yutu" that landed in 2013 and the "Yutu-2" that landed in 2019.

Today, between the exposed rocks and the silhouette of the crater, only "Yutu-2" is walking alone. After dozens of months and days of work, it silently explores the secrets on the back of the moon.

　　This year, China will comprehensively promote the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project, including the Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions.

"We hope that Chang'e-6 will collect more samples from the back of the moon and strive to achieve the goal of 2,000 grams. Chang'e-7 is preparing to land on the south pole of the moon. Launched around the year, Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8 will form the basic type of lunar South Pole scientific research station, including lunar orbiter, lander, lunar rover, spacecraft and several scientific detection instruments. On the one hand, it is to find water, and On the one hand, it is to detect the state of the south pole of the moon, its topography, and the material composition of its environment." said Wu Weiren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China's lunar exploration project.

　　"Jade Rabbit" may no longer be alone this year, and another "White Rabbit" will come to the moon to accompany it.

The lander of the Hakuto-R 1 mission of the lunar surface exploration project of the Japanese company "i Space" is scheduled to make a soft landing on the Atlas crater on the lunar surface in April.

The lander carried the lunar exploration vehicle "Rashid" of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in the United Arab Emirates and the transformable lunar robot of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

　　South Korea's first lunar orbiter 'Hangwol', which entered orbit around the moon late last year, recently showed the public its close-up view of the moon.

In the photos sent back by the "Moon Appreciation" recently, the distant view of the earth and the close view of the lunar surface are in the same frame, just like admiring the "earth rising" on the moon.

The "Moon Appreciation" will perform a more than one-year exploration mission in an orbit at an altitude of 100 kilometers above the moon.

　　NASA's small satellite, Lunar Torch, will also enter orbit around the Moon this year, using infrared laser pulses to search for water ice from craters in the permanently shadowed region of the Moon's south pole.

In addition, the research and development of NASA's new generation of lunar rover "Volatile Investigation Polar Exploration Vehicle" (VIPER) is in full swing.

The rover, about the size of a golf cart, is scheduled to land at the lunar south pole in 2024, where it will perform a 100-Earth-day mission to explore lunar water ice resources.

VIPER is an important part of the "Artemis" program of the United States to return to the moon, which aims to send American astronauts to the moon again as early as 2025.

　　Since the existence of water ice on the moon was confirmed, whether its content can support human beings to conduct long-term exploration activities there has been unknown. VIPER will answer questions such as "where is the water ice" and "how much is available".

To carry out the mission, VIPER will carry a variety of scientific instruments, including a drill and a spectrometer that can detect hydrogen atoms in water.

　　Several other countries are also moving forward with lunar exploration missions this year.

India's Chandrayaan-3 exploration mission is tentatively scheduled to launch this year after several delays, and will try again to send the lander and lunar rover to the south pole of the moon.

Russia also plans to send the "Lunar 25" probe to the south pole of the moon this year to investigate water ice resources and verify soft landing technology.

They carry human wisdom and curiosity, and work together to reveal the secrets of the moon.

(Participating reporters: Song Chen, Qian Zheng, Zhang Ying)